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Thursday, 29 May 2014

I am
sure that by now, you are aware of the murderous rampage that
occurred in Santa Barbara, California this past weekend. I am also
sure that most of you know who the murderer blames for this rampage.
I am a few days late in giving my opinion, but I feel that my voice
must be heard.

In his
manifesto, the murderer (he does not deserve to be made infamous)
stated: “You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know
why you girls aren't attracted to me, but I will punish you all for
it. It's an injustice, a crime because... I don't know what you don't
see in me. I'm the perfect guy and yet you throw yourselves at these
obnoxious men instead of me, the perfect gentleman.”

Tell
me, does a man who blames women for his rampage sound like the
perfect gentlemen? It certainly doesn't to me.

I can
hear any men reading this saying, “Not all men. That's only two men
out of millions.” Please, tell me something I don't know. I know a
few good men; I've even dated a couple. (Sadly, only a couple,
though.) The fact that men feel they need to defend themselves when
something like this happens doesn't help the issue at all.

But,
Twitter came alive and one brave woman (who does not wish to be
named) started a conversation with the hashtag, #YesAllWomen. I have
lent my own voice to it, and now, I am speaking out here. Our voices
must be heard.

One in
three women will be assaulted in their lifetime. I am part of that
one in three. More than half of those will not report it. I am also
in that group. Why? Because we are so often told, “You should have
said no,” “You should have fought back,” “It was a hard
lesson learned.” We are asked, “What were you wearing?” everytime.

I
was raped by an ex-boyfriend after I told him “no” several times.
I did not fight back because I was afraid of being beaten; my
ex-boyfriend was much stronger than me. My own father told me it was,
“a hard lesson learned.” What lesson do women have to learn from
being raped? I was taught
that men cannot be trusted,
and that rape victims should be ashamed of themselves.
My rape was a huge
wake up call to how
women are viewed and treated in our society.

As
children, we are taught to always be aware of our surroundings
because there could be a bad man lurking in the shadows who wants to
kidnap
us. As adults, we
are told to carry pepper spray and
rape whistles, and take
self-defence
classes to protect ourselves. We are taught to fear men, and the
misogynistic views some of
them have do not help us any. We are objectified and viewed as sex
objects. Some men views us as serfs and as reproduction machines. We
are not sex objects. We are not serfs. We are not reproduction
machines. We are women. WE ARE PEOPLE.

Here's
a question to all the women reading this: How many times have you
gone to a bar and been approached by a drunk man? How often do you
politely listen to what he has to say? How often do you laugh at his
often not-so-funny jokes? All the time? Me, too. And I can hear the
men, “Why would you do that?” We do that to protect ourselves
from any potential aggression that drunkard may give us. Women: How
have you ever claimed
you have a boyfriend when a man is bothering you? Yup, me, too. And
how many times has that man then walked away because he believes you
belong to another man? Yup, that sounds about right. Why is that it's
only when we claim we are taken by another man do those men stop
their advances? Why aren't
the words, “No” and “I'm
not interested” enough? Why
do they respect another man more than they do women? WHY?!

I've
even had men say they don't care that I have a boyfriend, or say,
“Well, if he doesn't show up, you know where I am.” At this
point, it takes either one of my male friends, or another woman to
finally get that guy to leave me alone. And many men think women
should be flattered at this point. It is not at all flattering; it's
downright rude.

Catcalling
makes me pull my skirt down and pull the top of my shirt up to cover
myself. It makes me feel very uncomfortable. I feel like an object
rather than a person. When a
man happens to get off the bus at the same stop as I do, especially
late at night, I listen to his footsteps and watch his shadow until
he turns and goes in a different direction. My keys are often in my
hand to have them ready to go inside my apartment building, and to
use as a potential weapon if need be. There have been nights when
I've sped into the elevator or up the stairs because of the feeling
I've gotten from a man loitering outside the building.

I
wish I didn't have to do these things. I wish I didn't have to
consider using my keys as a weapon when a strange man happens to get
off at the same bus stop I do, or happens to be walking in the same
direction I am. But, I have been raised, I have been conditioned to
think these things. I have been taught that I need to fear the
strange man.

We
live in a society where misogyny is the norm. There are songs written
about domesticating women, and rape. Blurred Lines
is a blatant example, and a song I absolutely refuse to listen to. We
live in a society where Robin Thicke can perform a song that is
outright degrading to women and no one bats an eyelash. “It's just
a song,” I hear people say. No, it's not just a song. It's
glorifying rape. As a
rape survivor, I find that song absolutely disgusting. Blurred
Lines gives our young men the
idea that rape, and domesticating women is okay. It's NOT okay.

Women
are the reason men are on this planet to
begin with. We give birth to
the next generations. Why are the people who give you life being
treated like we're less than human? Why are we being raped,
assaulted, and harassed by the very people we gave birth to? Why
don't we matter? Why must we be asked what we were wearing when we
report an assault? Why must we be shamed when we are beaten by a man?
Why is it, “Why didn't you leave?” instead of, “Why didn't the
abuser stop?” Why must we be taught to fear men instead of men
being taught to respect us?

The
#YesAllWomen conversation on Twitter gives some real insight into the
gender inequality women face on a daily basis. One wrote, “'I
have a boyfriend' is the easiest way to get a man to leave you alone.
Because he respects another man more than you.” Another said,
“#YesAllWomen because
the media will mourn the lives of ruined high school football
players, but not of the girls they assaulted.” Yet another spoke
out with: “#YesAllWomen because when a girl is harassed or even
groped by a stranger in public, we're told to “take it as a
compliment”.” A former
college student told us: “In
college, a police officer told us to scream FIRE if we were in danger
of being assaulted otherwise people won't get involved.” And then
there's this one: “When I had a seizure in my home, the EMS guys
asked my roommates if it was possible I was trying to get a boy's
attention.” And this
last one came from a friend of mine on Facebook: “#YesAllWomen
because last night on my way home from the movies I was verbally
accosted for ignoring a man's kissy faces, and ignoring another man's
attempts to hit on me.”

Since
when is having a seizure getting a boy's attention? Why do we have to
scream “FIRE” before someone helps us? My mother was mugged in
our own apartment building, and when she yelled for help, people
thought she was a kid fooling around. It wasn't until a friend of
hers recognized her voice and opened his door that help was given to
her.

We
live in a society where men think it is okay to harm a woman, that
it's okay to blame us for the crimes done onto us. We get the blame
when we don't respond to a man's pickup lines. We live in fear of a
man acting aggressively
towards us if we turn him down. We
live in a society where single fathers are praised while single
mothers are shamed.

We
teach our girls to fear men, and we teach them that wearing a short
skirt advertises that men can come and ravage them. This is NOT what
we should be teaching our girls. When I wear a short skirt, I'm
wearing it because I want to,
not because I'm asking for a man to have sex with me. Instead, we
should be teaching our boys to have more respect for women. We should
be teaching our sons to treat women as people, not as objects and sex
toys. We need to teach our sons that no means no and that's final. We
need to teach our sons that they are not entitled to our bodies. The
only person who is entitled to a woman's body is the soul who lives
within that body. We are the only ones who are entitled to our
bodies. We do not belong to anyone. We are not animals that need
domesticating. WE ARE WOMEN AND WE ARE PEOPLE. WE SHOULD BE TREATED
AS SUCH.

Thursday, 15 May 2014

It's been almost
three months since I had to put my fur baby, Misty down. Over the
last couple of weeks, my mom and I have both checked out the Toronto
Humane Society (THS) website to see just who is waiting for adoption.
(Despite my mom claiming there would be no more animals... heehee.)
One happened to catch my eye. Yesterday, after a brief discussion, my
mom and I drove down to the THS to see about adopting.

This is Acorn.

He was a stray born
on Friday, August 16th, 2013 and was surrendered to the THS on
Saturday, April 26th, 2014. On Tuesday, May 13th, 2014, he found his
forever home.

The moment I met
him, I fell in love. My mom and I had a look around at the other cats
in need of forever homes, but my heart was set on Acorn. So, we
filled out the application, went through the interview, and then went
to officially meet him. The minute I gave his ears and chin a
scratch, I knew he was the one.

We brought him home,
and he investigated every nook and cranny he could. He very quickly
found the living room window, as well as my bedroom one; they're his
favourite places to perch. It took him a few minutes to realize that
he could not get out onto the balcony. He seems okay with this,
though.

It hasn't taken him
long to claim the armchair by the window, and he has discovered that
he is allowed on the beds. He was my wake-up call at 5:45 Wednesday morning, and my cuddle buddy while I had breakfast. Boy, does he like
cuddles! I've never had a lap cat before, so this is going to be an
adjustment, but an adjustment I am more than willing to make.

He's a big boy; he's
about 2 feet from head to tail and weighs in at about 9.8 pounds. He has big feet, and he's a polydactyl, which means he has an extra toe. He has an extra toe on his two front paws. I very quickly fell in love with his paw just as I did him. He is very special.

A close up of his feet. His paws look like mittens. I love them!

When Lynn, the staff
member who went through the adoption process with us, took him from
his cage to the carrier, she looked at him and said: "You're
going home, Acorn; no more cages for you." I hope he knows how
true those words are. He may think I adopted him from the THS, but in
reality, he's the one who did the adopting; he adopted me. He has
found his forever home.

Saturday, 10 May 2014

Well, it has been ten days since this year's April session of Camp NaNoWriMo drew to a
close. Over 300,000,000 words were written by over 25,000 participants.
15,000 of those words were mine.

I started Camp with
a 25,000 word goal. I based it off of my November NaNo word count of
28,000. But, April proved to be a month of busy weekends (including a
belated birthday party) and lazy days. So, towards the end of the
month, I dropped my word count goal to a more obtainable 15,000.
Seeing the word, WINNER, come up on my screen was both exciting and a
relief. It's the first time since I started participating in NaNo in
2012 that I have won. But that wasn't my only accomplishment.

In early 2009, I
started writing a Power Rangers fanfic. When I began it, I
didn't really know where I was going with it, but the more I wrote,
the more the ideas flowed and came together. This fanfic would come
to be called The Power of Friendship, and it would very
quickly be posted on fanfiction.net. Well, this April's Camp NaNo saw
the completion of that fanfic, including an alternate version of one
chapter. The Power of Friendship is a fanfic I quickly grew to
be proud of and to love writing. I almost didn't want it to end. But
end it had to. My journey of writing it won't truly be over for
another couple days as I haven't yet posted the final chapters. Once
I do, then my journey will end. In truth, I'm sad to see it end, but
I'm also happy it has. Now, the readers who have followed it will
have a completed story to entertain themselves with. If you're a
Power Rangers fan as I am, and wish to read it, you can read
it here: The Power of Friendship

To those of you who
crossed the finish line and made your word count goals:
CONGRATULATIONS! *throws confetti* You did it!!! You made your goal!
You deserve a giant scoop of whatever your favourite sweet is!

To those of you who
didn't quite make your word count goals: CONGRATULATIONS! *throws
confetti* You did it!!! You have written more words than you had in
March, and that's something to celebrate. You also deserve a giant
scoop of whatever your favourite sweet is!

Writing is both easy
and difficult. It is a labour of love as well as labour of hurt. When
we really get into the groove, we can forget to eat and sleep until
our stomachs are on the verge of eating themselves and we are falling
asleep with our heads on our keyboards or our laptops in our laps. We
can lose track of time and lose our touch with reality for a few
hours. However, there are days when the coffee flows far better and
more often than our words do. Those days are hard and frustrating.
But, we get through them and can produce some magical things.

I hope the month of
April and these first few days of May have been kind to you.